Did you hear the one about the senator who got caught with his foot in his mouth? Sen. Jim Bunning must be using the same joke writer as President Bush.

Last week, you may remember, we poked the president for joking at a Washington banquet about not being able to find weapons of mass destruction. This week we hear that Bunning, R-Ky., got a laugh at a recent Lincoln/Reagan dinner in Florence by saying he thought his expected Democratic opponent, Dr. Dan Mongiardo, looked like Odai or Qusai, the now dead sons of Saddam Hussein.

Bunning apparently went on to make it clear that he thought Mongiardo, a state senator from Eastern Kentucky and the son of Italian immigrants, looked like Odai or Qusai while they were still alive. Bunning's campaign staff hemmed and hawed about the insult for a few days before issuing the following statement on Wednesday: "We're sorry if this joke, which got a lot of laughs, offended anyone."

Yuck, yuck.

Sieve-like security

Travelers from 27 countries previously exempted from giving their fingerprints upon entering the United States now will have to dab their pinkies on an ink pad, the Department of Homeland Security announced Friday.

The list includes most of Western Europe and Japan, countries from which visitors are permitted to enter the states without visas. Visitors from other countries already are fingerprinted. Fingerprinting those on the new list won't start until September. Once it does, it should take care of everybody - except the thousands of visitors who come in daily from Mexico and Canada.

Oh well, every system has a few holes in it.